Borealis Rare Iceberg Beer smacks of a gimmick. This is sold
as a pilsner and, indeed, the only thing this beer has which
makes it different is the iceberg angle. The brewery makes
only this beer, and I can't even see it for sale in its
native North America. It's a plus to have beer brewed
from clean and untouched waters, but you can also say that
taking the trouble to secure water from 150,000 year old
icebergs only to have them used in an inspiring beer is a
waste of precious world resources.

Avg price/liter: USD 10.66

ABV %: 5.0

Type: Lager

I won't waste my time with
another iceberg beer. Less than a month ago, my
curiosity was piqued and I ordered a
Japanese blue
beer made from iceberg water. I trashed that beer.
Its blue color and its iceberg water were all it had going
for it. A gimmick will get people to try a beer once.
If the beer has got nothing more to offer than the gimmicks
why would anyone ever reorder it?

Borealis Rare Iceberg Beer
smacks of the same gimmick. This is sold as a pilsner and,
indeed, the only thing this beer has which makes it
different is the iceberg angle. This iceberg angle is,
apparently, being exploited by other entrepreneurs. As
I was doing research on this beer, I came across an article
from 2010. A Newfoundland entrepreneur was trying to
carve into the water market by selling a product known as
Glace Rare Iceberg Water for C$10-15/bottle.

Sounds almost like Glace and
Borealis are run by the same guy. Of The North Brewery, which
produces Borealis Rare Iceberg Beer, is based in New
Brunswick, a nearby but different province than
Newfoundland. Doing a bit of research, I discovered
that both the water operation and the beer operation are
under the same umbrella, that of Ron Stamp, owner of the
Iceberg Canada Corporation.

I typically never perform academic research on a brewery or a beer before I've tried. I don't want to get caught up in the book knowledge of a company and its products before I've tasted them with my own lips.
Nor do I go to other web sites and skim other people's reviews. They're not relevant to me. The Beer Republic is my take on a beer,
and I dont' want to be swayed what other people say.

No one is saying anything
about this beer. Doing a search on the web, all that
comes up are some basic reviews on other beer web sites and
a few Asian web sites in Hong Kong and Thailand which sell
it. The brewery doesn't even have a real
web site. There is a picture of an iceberg and
some text: "10,000 years in the making. Website
coming much sooner."

The brewery makes only this
beer, and I can't even see it for sale in its native North
America. Borealis Rare Iceberg Beer looks more and
more like a gimmick all the time. It's a plus to have
beer brewed from clean and untouched waters, but you can
also say that taking the trouble to secure water from
150,000 year old icebergs only to have them used in an
inspiring beer is a waste of precious world resources.
It can take 7 gallons of water to make just 1 gallon of
beer. That means 6 gallons get dumped as waste water
in the process.

Craft beer drinkers drink
beer for taste. Municipal water brewed with other
great ingredients to produce a fine brew is preferred over
ultra expensive iceberg water brewed with no inspiration.
Ron Stamp is probably making a fortune though. the
same people willing to pay C$15 for a bottle of water would
sure pay $4 to boast they're drinking icebergs.